The landing had been surprisingly gentle, a testament to the skills Ahsoka has learned as a pilot under his teachings. The string of islands offered a place of refuge for them for the mission, as well as a place to leave the ship, hopefully where it would be safe, until they came back. The shipwreck itself was only a short swim out from the beach as well, and from where Anakin was standing the water appeared to be surprisingly calm.
'Hopefully that makes the swim out to the wreck easier for us both.' Anakin thought as he finished zipping up the remainder of his wetsuit, attaching the oxygen tanks to his back in the process with a strap. Glancing down again at his suit to ensure there were no gaps, Anakin gave a gentle hum of success, before reaching down ton pick up his bowl shaped helmet from the sand, brushing off the grains in the process, as well as attaching his own lightsaber to his belt. He might very need a way to defend himself if this was a trap.
It was then that movement from behind caught his attention, causing the Jedi Knight to turn around. The force told him he wasn't in any danger from the individual, not that he needed it to anyway. He instantly recognised the warm signature of his former padawan anywhere.
"You ready Snips?" Anakin inquired as Ahsoka walked over to him, her own wetsuit fully equipped, along with both her oxygen tank and facemask.
"As I'll ever be Skyguy." Ahsoka replied, a smirk coming to her lips behind the glass plane of her helmet.
Anakin couldn't resist the urge to smirk back. Ahsoka had always had that effect on him. Sure, around Padme and Obi-Wan he felt like he could be himself. But with Ahsoka it was somewhat different. He felt like he could trust her, even if he felt the need to constantly protect as he did everyone else he held dear. She was, in his mind, like him in more ways than she would probably ever admit.
That was most likely why they worked so well together, at least in his mind.
Lifting his helmet above his head, Anakin attached it, ensuring it was secure as to prevent any leaks, before beginning to walk towards the ocean, Ahsoka falling in step beside him.
The two waded out into the water, and before long both up to their necks in it, unable to walk on the ocean bed anymore.
Pushing forward with his arms, Anakin broke into a swim, Ahsoka still beside him, the two moving through the waves that were present with ease. Every pull and push of the water around them brought them ever closer to the shipwreck, and before long they were up against the ship itself.
The only question was how to get inside.
They had discussed the plan at length before setting off. From what they had been able to work out, it would be unwise to simply enter the ship through whatever hull breach had allowed the ship to sink in the first place, and cutting a hole in the hull underwater would only risk sudden and severe decompression.
Luckily for them, there was an airlock door that had not been submerged in water. They could enter through that.
Swimming up close to the airlock door, Anakin began to reach down to his belt to equip his lightsaber, when a new sound cut him off, one that resembled the snap hiss of a lightsaber.
Glancing over at the source of the sound, Anakin felt his eyes widen in surprise when Ahsoka appeared with a single bright golden blade in her hand, before plunging it into the airlock door and beginning to cut a circle.
"Where did you get that?" Anakin couldn't help but ask. He had her old lightsabers back in his quarters in the Jedi temple for safekeeping, in case she should ever return.
However, it appeared that she didn't need them at all, not if what he was seeing before him was any indication. Though he couldn't honestly remember the last time he had seen a golden blade. Yellow, sure, but golden?
What was that about?
"The Chancellor happened to have a kyber crystal given to him as a gift in the past. He gave me the crystal, and surprisingly it called out to me. Thus, I built a lightsaber with it." Ahsoka replied as she continued to cut a hole for them to enter through.
Anakin wasn't about to complain. If Ahsoka had a lightsaber, then that meant she could protect herself from any and all threats. That alone gave him some peace of mind.
A few moments later, Ahsoka retracted the blade from the airlock door, extinguishing the saber in the process and placing it back on her belt. How had he not seen it there before?
"Hang on a minute, is that thing curved?" Anakin inquired further, noticing the subtle way the hilt bent to one side slightly. It reminded him of Dooku's or Ventress' sabers, just far less pronounced in its curvature.
"Yep, and no, you can't borrow it. You've got your own." Ahsoka replied, before lifting one hand to grasp the circular hole she had cut out with the force, people pulling the metal away, creating their opening.
The metal splashed into the water behind them as Anakin vaulted up out of the water and through the hole Ahsoka had cut, the Togruta following behind him.
The interior of the ship was exactly how he had expected it to be. The lights were off, and many sections of the hull plates had buckled under either the impact of the crash, or the pressure of the water around them.
The hallway before them was also on its, side, meaning the duo were forced to endure a surreal experience of walking on the walls rather than the floor. Anakin already felt a headache coming on just at the sight before him. He dreaded what the flooded sections of the ship would be like.
"Ok," Ahsoka spoke from behind him, "We need to find out if any information has survived this crash, as well as figure out if anyone survived. I reckon if we can find this Jedi Master the Chancellor spoke of we will find the info we need."
"Agreed. I think we should make our way to the bridge if we can, even if it is submerged. Best guess is we will at least find something there." Anakin replied, taking point down the overturned hallway. They layout of all Venator's was practically the same. He had memorised pretty much every corridor on previous ships. It was just a case of finding a way deeper into the ship when said ship was both badly damaged and nearly upside down and lodged in a ravine.
"Right then, if memory serves me the mess hall should be nearby. Maybe we can find a way through from there?" Ahsoka inquired, her voice sounding surprisingly mature. It occurred to Anakin that she wasn't asking for an answer, a she had done whilst learning from him, but instead offering an opinion and suggestion herself. Ahsoka had always been opinionated, but she respected what others thought. The fact that she was now making the suggestions, rather than deferring to Anakin's was a sign of how much she had changed and matured.
And how much she had learned. They were equals now. Working together to achieve a goal, rather than one following another.
"Sounds good Snips. It should be this way." Anakin replied, gesturing down another upside down hallway that led to a bulkhead door at the end. It was closed, like pretty much every door would be on the ship, and without and power to open them, they would again have to cut their way through.
This time round Anakin ignited his saber first, plunging it into the bulkhead door and beginning to cut it open.
A few moments later the hole Anakin had cut fell open, and a rush of water came pouring through.
"Ah kriff!" Anakin exclaimed as he was knocked off his feet by the water, the flow quickly consuming the hallway they had been in and submerging both Human and Togruta. After a few moments the rush of water stopped, and Anakin regaining control over his body. In the corner of his eye he spotted Ahsoka, a small smirk on her face as she watched her former master knocked over by the sudden rush of water.
"You can't ever not make a scene can you Anakin?"
Behind his helmet Anakin rolled his eyes before pushing through the water, swimming through the hole he had created and into the mess hall.
Reigniting his lightsaber to provide a source of light, Anakin swam deeper into the dark room, before suddenly bumping into something.
Bringing his lightsaber up to illuminate the object before him, Anakin felt his heart sink at the sight of the white armoured figure before him.
A clone, and behind him, several more, all floating in the water, completely and utterly still. Some still had their helmets on. Others did not, and their exposed faces were frozen in looks of both horror and emptiness.
Behind him he heard a quiet gasp come from Ahsoka as she too spotted the floating bodies, her own lightsaber bathing her in a bright golden glow.
Behind her helmet, Anakin spotted Ahsoka's eyes close briefly in a sign of mourning. She had always seen the clones as more than just soldiers. To her, they were people. People who had lost their lives in a horrible way.
"There's nothing we can do here Snips. We have to keep moving." Anakin spoke softly, reaching a hand out to her, gently squeezing her arm and pulling her along with him.
"I know master, I just don't like seeing this, even now." Ahsoka replied, her voice quiet as she swam alongside Anakin, gently moving between various other floating bodies, careful not the disturb their rest.
"That's what makes you a good person Ahsoka. You care." Anakin replied,, leading the way out of the mess hall and down another flooded hallway.
Hopefully they would be at the bridge quickly, for both their sake.
The swim through the submerged hallways of the downed Venator droned with an ominous feeling. What light their lightsabers gave of only served to both illuminate the way, as well as reveal the floating bodies of the dead. Practically every hallway had at least one corpse in, suspended in the water, some with looks of terror on their faces, others mercifully hidden behind white helmets.
The sight never got any easier for Ahsoka. The bodies of the dead was something that had haunted her dreams early on, and still did to this day. At times she would dream of a battlefield of dead clones, bodies laying strewn from blaster fire, and on more than one occasion, lightsaber markings.
Other times were much worse. Rather than endless clones, she would dream of her closest friends laying dead around her, as she, the sole survivor, walked amongst the bodies. Anakin and Obi-Wan were fairly common bodies that she would find, sometimes more than one of them at once. Padme had appeared often as well, her usually bright and happy face mired with a look of betrayal.
Various other individuals appeared to, Jedi chief among them. Plo Koon, Yoda, even Windu had appeared in the piles of bodies.
Oddly enough, the one person who never seemed to appear was Captain Rex, for which she was grateful. She barely coped seeing the bodies of Anakin and Obi-Wan in her dreams. Rex would more than likely push her over the edge.
And now, the various bodies floating in the water around her as she swam through the dark and eerie halls only sought to remind her of those haunting dreams.
Swimming through another open doorway, Ahsoka lifted her one free hand forward to move another floating body out of the way when something caught her eye.
The chestplate of the clone was singed badly, a jagged hole directly in the centre, exposing what looked like scorched skin underneath.
"Anakin! Look!" Ahsoka spoke, calling her former master over to her. The human swam over to her, his hand resting on her shoulder as he arrived next to her, his eyes focusing on her discovery.
"A blaster mark?" Anakin questioned aloud, "I don't think this clone drowned."
Ahsoka nodded her head in agreement. Someone, or something had shot this clone, and they could very well still be in the wreck with them.
"Droids?" Ahsoka replied, her eyes surveying the next flooded room. There were three more floating bodies beyond the one in front of her, and each also seemed to have similar burn marks on them to the first.
"More than likely. We need to be extra careful now." Anakin answered cautiously, before swimming past the descended clone and into the next room.
Ahsoka glanced at the body of the clone one last time, before fully intending to swim after Anakin.
That was until her montrals picked up movement behind her.
Spinning round as fast as she could in the water, Ahsoka thought she spotted something moving behind her in the darkness beyond. Lifting her saber up to illuminate the hallway she had previously swam down, Ahsoka focused her eyes…
And saw nothing. There was no one there.
Perhaps her eyes were playing tricks on her. Togruta didn't do especially well in cramped conditions, even with their echolocation ability provided by their montrals. Perhaps the water and wreck around her were making her see and hear things that weren't there.
Shaking her head, she turned back around and began to swim after Anakin. For all she knew she was wrong about something being behind her, and right now she had bigger issues.
Something had killed the clones.
And that something could very well still be inside the ship.
Anakin had been waiting for her up ahead at the entrance to a large flooded room. At first glanced it didn't appear to be anything she recognized.
That was until she saw the familiar sight of an overturned AT-TE walker submerged in the water.
"Hanger bay by the looks of it. We are on the right track." Ahsoka spoke, her eyes surveying the room.
"Yeah, but I sense an ambush." Anakin replied, gesturing with his hands towards the darkness beyond. It would indeed be a perfect place to hide and ambush, and knowing what certain droids were like they would easily be able to hide until the last possible moment.
"So what's the plan then?" Ahsoka enquired, gripping her saber tighter in her hand in case she needed to defend herself suddenly.
Out of the corner of her eyes she saw a small smirk appear on Anakin's face, before he took off swimming into the hanger bay. Ahsoka resisted the urge to roll her eyes at Anakin's recklessness, before kicking off with her legs, propelling herself after him.
Somebody had to watch his back after all, especially if he was going to once again charge headlong into a possible trap!
"Reckless Human!" Ahsoka called out in jest to anakin as she came up alongside him, shooting him a cheeky smile in the process, one which he returned.
"Hey, you're the one following me Snips!"
This time Ahsoka did roll her eyes in humorous disdain, before opening her mouth again to reply.
That was before she was interrupted by the sound of a blaster firing.
Anakin span in an instant, his blue blade pivoting through the water in time to deflect the shot back at where it had come from.
And then, like clockwork, they emerged.
Several dozen silver armoured droids appeared from the shadows, blaster's firing towards both Anakin and Ahsoka from all directions.
"Aqua Droids!" Ahsoka called out a she brought her golden blade up in defense, deflecting a series of blaster bolts back towards one approaching droid, destroying it in the process.
"Predictable in hindsight!" Anakin called out in reply as he too continue to deflect incoming blaster bolts.
In a matter of moments both Anakin and Ahsoka found themselves back to back, covering each other from the droids that were surrounding them. There wasn't an overwhelming amount, but enough to force them to fight defensively until they had whittled down their numbers.
Ahsoka pivoted her new blade quickly, falling back on all of the training that Anakin had taught her, redirecting as much fire as she could. Around them, droid after droid fell, lowering their numbers.
That was until there was a gap in the blaster fire.
It was then that Anakin struck.
Surging forward through the water, Anakin cleaved two approaching aqua droids in half, before turning to redirect fire back at a third. When that was done he surged forward again, engaging in combat with another pair of droids.
Ahsoka couldn't help but chuckle at the dramatics of Anakin's fighting style. Sometimes she couldn't help but wonder if he was just showing off on purpose.
Redirecting her attention to her own situation, Ahsoka spotted three aqua droids closing towards her at speed. Bringing her saber up in front of her she swung upwards, cleaving one in two, before rotating the blade in her hand to her prefered reverse grip, bringing it across the centre of another droid in the process, slicing it in two.
The third droid however was able to close the gap faster than she could respond, slamming into her and knocking her back against the a nearby floating starfighter.
Ahsoka grunted from the force of the impact, dropping her lightsaber in the process, and bringing her now free hands up to push against the droid, which now had its own hands around her neck, attempting the strangle her.
Ahsoka struggled against the droid for a few seconds, before it's head suddenly exploded in a shower of metal, freeing Ahsoka from its grasp.
Shaking her head to remove the disorintation, Ahsoka glanced towards the darkness beyond her. She hadn't done anything to the droid, and neither had Anakin, as he was still busy finishing off the last of them.
In fact, judging by the way the droids head had exploded suddenly, Ahsoka would guess that something, or someone had shot it. The damage was certainly not done by a lightsaber.
Focusing her eyes again, Ahsoka could have sworn she saw movement in the shadow, just as she had earlier.
Only this time, she was convinced something was there.
"Snips? You ok?" Anakin's voice interrupted her train of thought suddenly, the human appeared beside her with her lightsaber in his hand, offering it to her.
"Yeah, I'm good." Ahsoka replied, taking the lightsaber and igniting it to illuminate the darkness beyond.
Again, nothing moved in the darkness. She could have sworn she had seen something this time!
Lowering her head in contemplation, Ahsoka was distracted by the sudden taste of water on her lips.
Wait! Water! On her lips!
Ahsoka's eyes widen in horror.
It was then that she saw the look on Anakin's face.
As well as the crack in her helmet.
Author's thoughts
This was an odd chapter to write. I wanted an underwater adventure as it's not something that you see happen very often in something that isn't a disaster movie like Titanic. Hopefully this chapter sets the sort of atmosphere I wanted for it, which was creepy and mysterious. There does appear to be some strange things going on in the shipwreck doesn't there?
Also, I hope you liked the significance of the description of Ahsoka's nightmares. Anyone want to hazard a guess as what they could be representative of?
So yeah, it would also appear that Anakin and Ahsoka's reckless nature has once again led them into peril. I wonder how they will get out of this one!
As usual, comment and speculate at will. Speaking of which:
SLE's fave guest: You got that right. Give us more Skyguy and Snips hugs!
And damn Palpatine for being so trustworthy and kind! It's almost as if he is hiding something.
I'm fairly certain Obi-Wan has lost more robes that the Jedi council put together by now. It's kinda like his calling card to be fair. I can picture him leaving it behind with a pile of battledroid parts for Grievous to find as a way of mocking him. XD
Mysterious guest number one: I'm glad the reunion warmed your heart. That was what I had intended. Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter as well.
TerminatorJedi: Skyguy and Snips fluff is always needed, and I am happy to provide it on this occasion. More fluff from them to come as well.
Obi-Wan will be appearing more later on. I have an awesome moment for him coming later on. As for where he will be during Order 66... wait and see. It's not where you might think.
Palpy is a symbol of kindness. In his own words, 'I Love Democracy, I love the Republic'.
Chiara Polairix Edelstein: Glad to have made you happy. That was my main goal with the previous chapter. :)